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Canadian power generator transitioning from coal to natural gas, wind, solar and hydro generation, mainly serving Alberta's electricity market.
Canadian power generator transitioning from coal to natural gas, wind, solar and hydro generation, mainly serving Alberta's electricity market.
Earns from selling electricity into Alberta's open wholesale market, where prices swing, and from long-term contracts and hedges that fix a large share of output ahead. Its coal plants have been converted to gas or closed, leaving hydro, wind and gas as the base, and it also operates plants in Ontario and the US.
In one line: A regional power generator transitioning away from coal, like a smaller NRG Energy.
Moat: none. Merchant power generator exposed to Alberta wholesale power prices, without a structural cost or contract advantage.
Headquarters: Calgary, Canada · Founded: 1911 · Employees: 1,350
Size TransAlta (TA.TO) is a Canada Utilities company (Electric Utilities) with a market value of $4.15B, the 134th largest of 420 Canada companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at C$18.38 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 5.3%, against -8.7% for the median peer and +5.2% for the Canada market (cap-weighted) — 2nd highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 12.0% over the last twelve months (peer median +4.4%); the operating margin is 8.1% (peer median 10.5%).
Valuation It trades at 49.9× forward earnings against a peer median of 10.6× (3rd most expensive of 20).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 22% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +4%, so the hurdle is +18 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 3.2 points below its cost of capital (5.3% WACC).
Backlog Backlog (remaining performance obligations) was C$2.52B at 31 Dec 2025, up 8% on a year earlier — 1.0 years of trailing revenue. Backlog detail →
Next results Next results expected around 25 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | C$2.19B | C$2.41B | C$2.79B | C$4.10B | C$2.85B |
| Revenue growth | — | -14% | -32% | +44% | — |
| Gross profit | C$991M | C$785M | C$1.16B | C$2.26B | C$863M |
| EBITDA | C$691M | C$414M | C$1.02B | C$2.60B | C$1.35B |
| Net income | C$103M | -C$138M | C$229M | C$695M | C$50.0M |
| Free cash flow | C$331M | C$397M | C$485M | C$589M | -C$41.0M |
| Capital expenditure | C$226M | C$260M | C$321M | C$888M | C$949M |
| Total debt | C$4.22B | C$4.34B | C$4.56B | C$4.21B | C$4.41B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TransAlta TA.TO | $4.15B | +5% | -12% | 8% | 49.9× | 21.9% |
| Capital Power CPX.TO | $7.13B | -4% | +25% | 10% | 19.5× | 18.9% |
| ATCO ACO-X.TO | $6.15B | +25% | +5% | 12% | 16.8× | 15.0% |
| Northland Power NPI.TO | $4.22B | -4% | +15% | 34% | 14.3× | -1.7% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | TA.TO | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +0.1% | -0.7% | 10th highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +5.3% | -8.7% | 2nd highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -17.9% | -26.8% | 7th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -12.0% | +4.4% | lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 8.1% | 10.5% | 7th lowest of 20 |
| Forward P/E | 49.9× | 10.6× | 3rd most expensive of 20 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 21.9% | 0.3% | most demanding of 11 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +4.1% | +9.4% | 3rd lowest of 11 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +17.7 pp | -5.1 pp | most demanding of 11 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -3.2 pp | -1.7 pp | 5th lowest of 20 |
| EV / EBITDA | 15.4× | 10.0× | most expensive of 13 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 5.5× | 5.3× | 7th least indebted of 13 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TransAlta TA.TO | Canada | $4.15B | +5% | -12% | 8% | 49.9× | 21.9% | +4.1% |
| Tokyo Elec Power Co Hldgs 9501.T | Japan | $4.17B | -31% | -2% | 1% | 3.7× | n/a | n/a |
| AGL Energy AGL.AX | Australia | $4.21B | -3% | -6% | 11% | 10.5× | n/a | n/a |
| Northland Power NPI.TO | Canada | $4.22B | -4% | +15% | 34% | 14.3× | -1.7% | +3.4% |
| TAURON Polska Energia TPE.WA | Poland | $4.02B | -6% | 0% | n/a | 6.1× | 17.0% | +10.4% |
| Algonquin Power & Utilities AQN.TO | Canada | $4.29B | -9% | +6% | 20% | 14.2× | n/a | n/a |
| China Power International Development 2380.HK | Hong Kong | $4.29B | -20% | -5% | 20% | 13.6× | n/a | n/a |
| Jiangsu Guoxin 002608.SZ | China | $4.30B | -1% | +7% | 5% | 12.6× | -0.7% | +10.5% |
| Electric Power Development 9513.T | Japan | $4.39B | +2% | +4% | 10% | 8.2× | 4.5% | +5.4% |
| Tohoku Electric Power 9506.T | Japan | $3.89B | +13% | +17% | 3% | 4.9× | n/a | n/a |
| Drax DRX.L | United Kingdom | $3.88B | 0% | -8% | 9% | 10.4× | -0.2% | +4.8% |
| Shenzhen Energy 000027.SZ | China | $4.49B | -8% | +4% | 13% | 11.2× | n/a | n/a |
| Wintime Energy 600157.SS | China | $4.55B | -21% | -9% | 7% | 104.2× | 0.8% | +1.4% |
| Pampa Energia SA Sponsored ADR PAM | United States | $3.78B | -19% | +29% | 21% | 7.4× | n/a | n/a |
| Shaanxi Energy Investment 001286.SZ | China | $4.68B | -16% | +4% | 24% | 12.9× | -9.2% | +18.6% |
| Guangdong Electric Power Development 000539.SZ | China | $3.64B | -21% | +8% | -1% | n/a | 9.8% | +8.9% |
| Brookfield Renewable BEPC | United States | $4.79B | -13% | +6% | 19% | 249.6× | n/a | n/a |
| Guangzhou Development 600098.SS | China | $3.56B | -3% | +4% | 4% | 14.9× | -1.0% | +9.9% |
| Iren IRE.MI | Italy | $3.54B | -9% | -8% | 9% | 10.6× | 5.5% | +12.0% |
| NLC India NLCINDIA.NS | India | $3.50B | -28% | +17% | 18% | 9.9× | n/a | n/a |
| Shanghai Electric Power 600021.SS | China | $4.98B | -31% | -6% | 13% | 8.9× | n/a | n/a |
TransAlta reported C$2.52B of remaining performance obligations at 31 Dec 2025, up 8% from a year earlier. That is 1.0 years of trailing revenue already under contract.